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just remove the touchwiz UI!every single samsung device has lags because of it!after installing google edition\diffrent roms that not based on it, the lags dissappeard!the UI is their most weak point, no matter how fast the cpu\gpu or ram will be, the ui, after several software insallation will L-A-G. just go over youtube and see it for yourself! wether it is GALAXY note 1,2,3 or galaxy s 12345, or tabs. they are lagging! (except google edition)Reply

In my opinion Galaxy S5 does not reach up to the same level as the competition, even from other Samsung phones (see http://www.consumertop.com/best-phone-guide/ ). For example HTC One M8 and Motorola Moto G are fantastic. But we can agree on one thing – Galaxy S5 wipes iPhone off the table any time of the day. Reply

I hate to break it to you, but how stable it is when using apps isn't exactly relevant when using touchwiz. On my friend's S4, there is noticeable slowing when doing motions in the basic UI, which is what we are talking about.Reply

I hate to break it to you, every phone, no matter brand or OS can be slow if you install the wrong apps.

Your "friends" phone is completely irrelevant to everybody who's actually used a GS4. Because we know you just full of it. How do I know I am more right than you? Because I know which Android phone is dominating sales. By a gigantic margin. If anything of what you're making up is true, Samsung wouldn't be as dominant, no matter how much money they would throw at their marketing department.Reply

Dominating sales has nothing to do with what you're describing. Have you tried the google play version of the galaxy s? The one that comes with stock android and doesn't feature the silly overlays? Yup, runs more stable than the "regular" galaxy s and actually gets updated in terms of software.

The reason why manufacturers drop those skins is not so they "look different" only but because they can somehow rationalize not updating the software on the device later and force you into an upgraded device sooner.

Anyone buying a non-nexus phone is in this boat unless they want to do some work on their own to keep the devices up to date and that doesn't always quite work out right in terms of stability.Reply

If you don't understand what Android is, I really don't see why I should discuss it with you.

Android is a free to use open source platform. This means, manufacturers has to compile the code to their specific hardware, which takes a few months. NO ONE IN THE REAL WORLD CARES ABOUT THIS DELAY NIVA. NO ONE.

People who are been obsessed with stock experience pushed to their phones the minute Google announces a new update buy a Nexus phone. Everyone else buys the phone they feel best suits them. Most people teds to buy Galaxy S phones, simply because they are the best, and one of the very few with an OLED display.

Skinning Android is a necessity to create a feeling of an ecosystem the buyer feels at home with. For instance, I could never live with the skin Sony crams into their phones, in my opinion it's ugly in really incoherent. I have a Nexus tablet too, but I prefer TouchWiz, simply because it gives you a lot of really, really useful add/on features.

Anyone arguing a Nexus phone is the only choice, just because it has stock Android doesn't understand what a smartphone is. The Nexus 5 is a mediocre phone. At best.Reply

Try putting the exact same widgets on those two phones when you scroll. TouchWiz doesn't stutter from simple scrolling. However all operating systems stutter for instance when information has to be swapped from storage to RAM. Even my 8GB quadcore Haswell desktop PC does that fairly often.

You should really try one out for real instead of basing your ideas off something you've basically read on a forum on the internet.Reply

Just use a different launcher from Touchwiz. My Note2 struggles a little in Touchwiz. I use Nova Launcher now and everything is much smoother. No root required, just install it and set as default launcher.Reply

pls --- a Nexus is on par with the currently leading phones for about 2/3 of the price -- that doesn't a mediocre phone make. And the usefulness of the Touchwiz addons is completely subjective -- had a Galaxy S and an SIII and in both cases it wasn't long till i flashed a custom ROM to get rid of all the crammed in usefulness...

Don't paint a product with your personal experience and then extrapolate to everyone else. It just doesn't work that way and if you had any intention of being fair you'd know that. I don't like Touchwiz. Some do (i.e. you) but you can't argue that they add a bunch of apps that aren't directly tied to core functionality (like messaging for example which can't be removed) without even giving you a choice to uninstall what you deem unnecessary .... Lack of choice is always a grade down for me. I don't need the multitude of hubs for this and that and i can't get rid of them.

and btw, on the "NO ONE IN THE REAL WORLD CARES ABOUT THIS DELAY NIVA. NO ONE." part -- there is a large modding community that begs to differ ...Reply

The Nexus phones are nice. But they are not on par. They're good value high/end phones, where the manufacturers cuts corners on pretty important things like display quality, camera and other things that are not easy to present in tech specs but are pretty obvious when you use them.Reply

You are right, nexus aren't on par: they are better. When it comes to build quality, Samsung's devices disappear. A nexus 5 is far better build than a 700$ Galaxy S5 ....The nexus 5 isn't perfect, for sure. Battery and camera aren't the best on the market, but still is superior to any Galaxy S .... at a lower price point.Stock Android makes it fast and responsive, without tons of gimmicks added by Samsung.The only Samsung I would consider is a GPE.Reply

Build quality is better in the Nexus 5? Just because it's different materials, it definitely does not mean it's better built. The GS5 is IP67 certified, which actually requires higher precision and build quality than, you know, no IP certification.... :)Reply

I work for a company that has IPX certified our products just this year, and I know first hand that IPX certification does not account for build quality or materials. I could get a cellphone made with cardboard and cellophane tape IP67 certified. This doesn't mean it is durable or well made.Reply

Of course .... everyone's opinion ..... is an opinion ......just like yours. However, the nexus 5 is an excellent device. Let me say .... my personal device is a Samsung and I have no problems with Touch-Wiz but use a custom launcher (Nova). What you get in a N5 for $349.00 is astounding One can purchase a N5 and a Nexus 7 and still have change left for what you pay for the S5.Yes ..... the S5 is very nice ....... but I'm not "bending over"!!!Reply

nikon. Let me see what your grammars looks like in your third language... It helps if you actually brings something valuable to the discussion instead of nitpicking on irrelevant things in a poor attempt to sound clever. :)Reply

People buy Samsung just because of their BS marketing .... And most of the Samsung sold are crappy cheap devices like the Galaxy Ace series.Nexus 5 is much better than Galaxy S4 and it costs less money.Reply

They put skins to look different, your made-up logic of developing skins to delay software updates is basically stupid. They put more work into the skins if you compare it to just updating to the latest Android that comes from Google.

The skin is developed by a different team than those who compiles the Android core for a specific hardware, it's something each manufacturer works on internally while Google themselves works on what the operating system should offer. Or do you seriously believe that each company only has one developer on their payroll, doing one thing at the time? Your logic is so flawed that I don't even know why I wasted time replying to you.... :)Reply

Heh. Sales are meaningless without profit and Samsung isn't making much. That would be Apple. Actually we know S4 sales were quite weak and manufacturing had to be cut back as a result. Samsungs sales were largely el cheapo phones not the cheap derivative S 4 with allots barely working features.Reply

Everyone knows the more a company extracts from its user base in profit the better it is run and is. That's why people just love Comcast. At least three times the margin as Apple, it's the best ever.Reply

More on profits in a moment but foray I think this bears repeating: "I love handing over massive amounts of extra cash every time I buy a device so I can claim that the company that makes my device has the highest profit margins! $100 for an extra 16 GB is nbd so long as I can wave my idick around to show everyone how big it is!"

I have a nexus 5 and am happy to report that I didn't waste hundreds of extra dollars so that LG or Google could boast higher profit margins.

Now regarding Samsung and Apple, Samsung's profits actually exceeded apple's in Q2 and Q3 last year. Overall apple finished ahead last year with $35 billion in profit to Samsung's $30 billion but it was far from a blow out and Samsung will have plenty of capital to invest in R&D, etc to challenge apple even more. There is a reason apple's internal slide show says "people want what we don't have" - yep.... Reply

Actually I have a Note 3 that not 4 mos old that is up for sale because of the UI. So I admit it, I got suckered by Sammy, Never again. Their attempt to create their own OS on top of google sucks. Most people are stupid, look at how many bought into and keep buying the IPhone. Reply

Of course that is nonsense and posting foolish thing from the android central shill site doesn't help your case. Try android police. Or by all means go the Android central forums and see all the people who dumped the S 4 for some other android phone. Hilarious!Reply

Android central is reputable, as is Android Police, but the "report" you linked to didn't originate from either of those websites. It came from "crittercism," whatever the hell that is.

Anyways, best selling devices do not automatically equal the best devices on the market. It comes down to marketing. It's the reason why people used to think all android phones were "droids" and how the average person can't tell apart a galaxy note from an S class device.

And lastly, it seems that the past 2 iterations of the S series have launched with unoptimized software. Look at the early S4 reviews, and look at Anand's own words, there is still lag that is present in Touchwiz that doesn't show up on say, the M8.Reply

I don't why Anand is pretending that there is an open race out there.(Actually, I do, because how else to retain people's Interest?).

The Nexus 5 (Black) wins on basically everything, especially software. It has no weak points, and it is by far cheaper than Z2/M8/S5. Sure, there are individuals areas, like metallic body for M8 that some prefer(although the notion thqt metql material = better, has become little more than conventional wisdom), but the total package is unbeatable.

Still, people are swayed by marketing, which is why Samsung can get away with charging 200 dollars too much. People are irrational.Reply

It wins on everything except battery, sd card, not having to be google's ver. 4.x.0 guinea pig (because most people with nexus devices remember 4.2.0 and 3 months of misery that caused) a better screen (anand can screech and scream about "rgb gamut" or whatever but most people prefer pretty colours really ;) ) oh and better camera (one that works for one) decent touchscreen (one that works properly - I know multitouch is a new thing - one day it'll work on recent two nexus-es)... Oh and S5 is also waterproof... And the gpu is faster...

But yeah nexus 5 wins on everything else. Mostly though on being cheap. *shrug*Reply

I prefer accurate colours to ridiculous overblown colours any day. My skin, for example, is a pale pinkish-white colour, not oompa-loompa orange like the default settings on a lot of TVs and now smartphones paint it.Reply

What r u talking about. I never faced any issues on My Nexus 5 regarding software or hardware. RGB is real pixel and not RG BG samsung cheap grossly over saturated colors. Nexus 5 is the best screen/ touch till date and yeah nexus 5 delivers better low light performance and with OIS better videos than Galaxy S4. And yes if being cheap is an draw back then yes Nexus 5 is Cheap. You better face reality.Reply

I'm sorry but I truly hate the N5 screen. I've got an S4 and friends have the N5. Every time I pick it up I immediately notice how washed out the colours look. It's a great phone don't get me wrong, but I hate the screen.Reply

The Samsungs have user replaceable batteries and external SD card slots. Those features alone make their phones MUCH better, for me at least.

Until a phone can be recharged in less than 15 minutes I will continue to buy phones that have user replaceable batteries. I swap batteries several times a week. I never have to worry about charging. I never have to wait more than time it takes to shut down, swap batteries and boot up.

The SD card slot is another nicety. Though not a deal breaker if it is missing, it sure is nice to have extra storage beyond what the phone makers offer among other conveniences of transferring files to devices that aren't networked..Reply

For such a rant about others idiocy, you don't seem to have very solid arguments, just a pretty subjective opinion.

Lack of microSD and replaceable battery is a no go for many people (including myself) against the Nexus. Also, besides all the FUD around "tech" sites, AMOLED is just a much better technology for any screen and especially useful on mobile devices... if it was properly leveraged, which amazingly Samsung does not, but a knowledgeable user can. Even if you don't take advantage of the low consumption of dark themes on OLEDs, you get the best screen out there with the S5, according to DisplayMate.

The N5 isn't superior by any measure other than the promise of fast OS updates. However, when you take in the huge "bang for the buck" .......... the N5 is very compelling! The Moto X, very nice when it was on sale. You can buy a N5 and a nice tablet for the purchase price of a S5. The value for many for the $600.00+ price for a S5 ......... is prohibitive. Of course I respect those who value having one of the best ...... if that means that much! It's just "different stroke for different folks"!Reply

Agreed, but as xsoft7 has pointed out Samsung has a way of making the change seem bigger than it is.Personally I would have liked to see the power button moved so you don't press it when you pick up the phone.Reply

Just wondering - what did Samsung missed out in your opinion? I thought their battery life is phenomenal, camera is improved, new features (finger scan, heart rate, etc.) are evident. To me the only lacking feature is absence of Qi wireless charging out of the box. Other then that they have a very appealing phone.Reply

Plastic body, pentile, not the brightest display, not the best build quality, not the best feel in the hand, not the best camera, not the best processor, could be the last of the 32 bit top end phones, not the best finger scanner, not the best styling, hard to use one handed - but a high price - seems ho hum to me. (But it does have the most advertising, so maybe they are spending their money wisely :). Reply

I know its not as important with the quicker shutter speed, but personally I was hoping for OIS (in h/w), as I seem to have very shaky hands judging by some of the videos I've shot over the years..Reply

Actually I'm pleased that we are now at the stage of purely refinement rather than revolutionary features. At least from here on in we should get products that actually work and work well rather than half baked features that are strangely absent from the next version.Reply

Individually you could say it's not the 2nd coming, but all things combined, build, grip, camera, battery, screen, performance, features, it's a bigger leap forward than any Android device since the Note 2.Reply

Or Display Mate might have the better equipment and expertise in -errr...- display calibration technology, which they have been doing for some million years or so and beg to differ with Anand's conclusions?Reply

Well then. I didn't know that my comments needed to be backed by deep arguments. For one, the reason I'm here is because I've been reading Anandtech for nearly 15 years and know that I can trust them to be competent and objective. I'm admittedly not as familiar with DisplayMate's reviews (though I've known the name for a long time), so I don't know how trustworthy they usually are, but based on my own experience with the Galaxy S5, I do find it a bit surprising that they think it has the best mobile display ever. When compared to my Nexus 5 and my wife's iPhone 5, whites on the GS5 had a green tint, there was banding in some gradients, and there was noticeable smearing when scrolling quickly. So, you're telling me the best mobile display can't even display white properly? My rudimentary findings line up more with Anandtech's findings, and plus I already trusted Anandtech, so yeah, I'm calling BS on DisplayMate's claim. The GS5 has a good display for sure, but after hearing what DisplayMate thought, I was expecting more. I think ltcommanderdata could be on to something. DisplayMate might have received a "special" cherry picked GS5 with a custom calibration or something. I would like them to review a random production unit they buy themselves.Reply

Really? Maybe I'm old fashioned but I was under the impression that the better device is what's important, at least for us consumers. If you work for Samsung or are a stock holder, than yes, their sales figures should definitely concern you. Otherwise if you think it's important than you're just another sheep.Reply

If u want highly over saturated colors and no ability to read in sunlight and greenish tint and RGBG cheating.. yeah go for it. cant help. NEXUS 5 is having the best screen till date and it is using LCD and so is HTC ONE M8 and LG G2. Reply

Maybe you're right and its oversaturated (reading in direct sunlight is impossible on any of the current crop of backlit panels - sorry but that's just how life is) but using anything after the samoled screen looks bland, grey and frankly crap.

But yeah that rgb spectrum is important or something. We should care or whatever.

Its not like I haven't seen the last two iphones (5s and 5 - let alone 4s 4 and earlier, I haven't seen the m8 - nor do I care to its not going to sell anyway. Just like last year.). They were just as unreadable in the sun as my current S4. So lets not argue anecdotal evidence mkay?

That said - S5 has a locked bootloader. Thus holds no interest for me. Plus its a rehash with slightly better internals. Just like every other "flagship" this year so far.

What a boring year in the mobile space. That is to say until apple's ip6 (and if that's a rehash - the whole year is a write off)Reply

Slightly? You mean that twice the speed is a slight improvement, among other things? The screen works just fine outdoors, by the way, and it will work better than the S5, as it's still noticeably brighter.Reply

Sorry, gotta call BS. A) you've NOT seen the latest iPhones 4-5s or B) you're not using 'currently an S4'. The iPhone for YEARS has both had a phenomenal display, well calibrated out of the box and EXTREMELY EASY to read in sunlight, bright rooms, choose the place. I own the 5s (my personal phone) and Note 3 (Biz). Love em both...but to proclaim an iPhone isn't easy to read in sunlight or outdoors is Pure, GradeAAA horse pucky. It's not tough to cheat my N3 in bright rooms and outdoors, and I'm enjoying both displays. SAMOLED & my LCD. Kinda cool time to be a part of technology but the S4 was a bad joke. S3 owners had/have a special phone. If they have exhausted a two year contract, the S5 is a HUGE Win for them. A massive boost in every facet compared to the '4' and a worthy upgrade for the Galaxy fans.Boring year? You're a tough fella to impress. 4k capture on a mobile cam. HiDPI displays, 'Moore's Mobile Law' seems in effect. We got a 64bit chip last year. The A8 instruction set. A quad core, 2.3GHz phone with 3GB of RAM...& these numbers from the Snapdragon and Adreno graphic updates...on 32bit SOCs. Phenomenal cameras, LTE and AC WiFi, USB 3 and waterproofing. The iPhone fingerprint scanner is phenomenal. If this one's good...that's some incredibly convenient security! Man...'rehash'. 'Write the year off!' Where do bozos like you hail from?Reply

My LG Optimus Pro G has a MicroSD slot, and a larger screen, and was a lot cheaper than the G2. That said, I won't buy an LG phone again - third party support is too weak, and there are some really annoying bugs in the software that haven't been fixed. I would like to go back to Apple, but need a larger screen, and enough space for 24 GB of music.Reply

lol very funny. Ignoring all best aspects like battery life gorgeous screen and knock code and superb camera. just cause its not having SD card it sucks. I am doing just fine with my Nexus 5 32 GB phone.Reply

Yes because endless free mobile data is a global thing. I travel a lot I don't like to pay roaming charges for streaming all around europe. I suggest you try it one day and see how that works for you.

And I approve of the "you're not holding/using it right" comment at the end.

SD cards are a requirement on a device that I require to have an SD card. Simple as that. Besides why the hell does a tablet need an sd card more than a phone? Can't you by your own (silly) logic simply stream Blueray movies or something? Or is that going to be a 2015 thing?Reply

On top of that it would be nice to see the results of at least some windows phones on the graphs. I can understand that a lot of windows phones have lower end hardware because they aren't very resource intensive, and thus probably don't always top the benchmarks, but it would be nice to know how they compare. Even if it's just a single entry at the bottom as an "FYI"Reply

I believe the review lacks the comparison with Windows 8 phones, because this site has no reviews with ANY Windows 8 phone. It just avoids them. At least Brian Klug did that. So, if he's not around, the better the things will be. Let's see if anything changes here. In the mean time, as far as smarthpones goes, I read mainly other sites. Reply

yeah, good to see that Brian Klug is no longer writing for Anandtech, he personally hated Windows phones and used to mock them publically. Also, there was no review for Nokia phones eventhough Nokia sent all the flagship models last year like 920,925, 1020 to Brian Klug.

And from what i can make out this fiasco has led to Nokia no longer inviting Anandtech to their events and no samples too, hopefully Anand or the new writers can restore the relationship.Reply

Ah, I see. Was this in previous versions of the AOSP launcher? I know that Sense had this edit mode as far back as Sense 4.0, and I don't recall anything else at the time that had the same UI for home screen editing.Reply

No, I don't believe so. I don't think there was an edit mode at all, aside from the widget drawer.

I have to ask, though. How were you adding widgets to the Nexus 5's home screen without knowing about that mode? (Or is it not a device you normally use?) I don't think there's any other way to do it, since the widget drawer is no longer conjoined to the app drawer.

And yes, I think that UI first showed up in Sense 4. Google definitely borrowed it, but didn't implement it as well. You can't delete entire home screens with at once, for example. Reply

Guys apple uses two BIG cores not small ones in quad or octa core andrioid's...compare the chip area and u will get to know. Its always the debate between big cores or small multiple cores. There is no magic wand with apple.Reply

Exactly.Two different concepts.The alone fact that those "measly" cores have the same, maybe even slightly higher power draw as the four Krait 400 cores, shows that they are entirely different beasts Reply

On the camera page, no mentions of the G2, which, to me, seems to produce better-looking output in the low-light shots than the rest (though, for all I know, that might be mostly a difference in postprocessing)? What's up--was that added after the text was written, or am I an outlier for thinking the G2's shots look nice?Reply

I honestly wish Android phones stopped getting bigger. I upgraded from an HTC Thunderbolt to an S3 about 2 years ago and still haven't got used to such a big phone. I'm seriously considering switching to the iPhone simply for the overall phone size.Reply

"I find that pretty much all the flagships offer some set of tradeoffs that prevent any one from being the perfect device (iPhone's screen size, GS5's materials, M8's camera). It's unfortunate because I'd really like to crown a single device the king of them all, but instead we're faced with a handful of differing optimization points."

Try Xperia Z2. I don't really see any significant negative points with that device.Reply

I'm glad to see more testing of the cameras and screens, it is too bad the M7 wasn't represented in the screen shots, as it is a very high density screen. I realize you can't test everything and a last-gen phone is not high on the priority list. On that note there is no excuse for no including a Nokia in the camera tests. My better half's 1520 cam makes this M7 user cry, it is that awesome, and that's not even Nokia's best.Reply

Yes, you're wrong. The 64-bit thing is totally overblown. It's not going to make any practical difference until we get to a point where 4GB of RAM is a limiting factor in mobile devices. Which won't be for a long time.Reply

Oh wait, you said 805 not 808, my bad. 805 looks to be a largely incremental update, asides from the GPU. So yeah, in a sense I guess you're right. I don't think the difference is anything to be so concerned about that you'd delay a purchase for a half year or so over it, though.Reply

Yes, you're wrong. It's not like when 64 bit Android drops all 32 bit will be deprecated. Both will still be supported for a long ass time. In fact it may take a long time for 64 bit apps to come around. Reply

After my wife owning a GS3 my self owning the GS4 we have plenty of experience with their products and both agree we dont want another one.

When people used to say Samsung made cheap phones we thought that was blown out of proportion. WE WERE WRONG.

Samsung Galaxy phones are cheap plastic crap. The screens break too easily. My wife has had her screen shatter 3 times and every single time the phone was in a case. I used to drop my HTC evo on the cement without a case and it had nothing but a scratch/dent.

Next upgrade will likely be to the new HTC One M8 or maybe an LG G2. I bought my son and LG G2 for Christmas and have been jealous ever since. Everything about that phones design trumps the Samsung Galaxy phones, even the software.

What I would really like to get my hands on is a Nokia Lumia 930. I was able to play with these at a private Nokia party during Microsoft Build this year and let me tell you this phone is absolutely amazing. Some of the software features on it are going to make all other phones pale in comparison. They had side by side demos of the 930, iPhone 5S, SGS4 and some of the things the 930 could do were amazing.Reply

"What I would really like to get my hands on is a Nokia Lumia 930. I was able to play with these at a private Nokia party during Microsoft Build this year and let me tell you this phone is absolutely amazing. Some of the software features on it are going to make all other phones pale in comparison. They had side by side demos of the 930, iPhone 5S, SGS4 and some of the things the 930 could do were amazing."

Unfortunately, the Lumia 930 won't be coming states-side anytime soon. The Nokia flagships for the time being will be the 1520 on AT&T or the Icon (which is essentially the same as the 930) on Verizon.Reply

When you say "I can see why Samsung would want to optimize for these two cases as they are quite common in regular usage" what is this based on? Usage models show that >90% of commands sent to eMMC during regular usage are 4k random writes. Sequential read and write is rarely used in the system, and most sequential read/write events are not dependent on eMMC having great sequential performance, ie video playback, recording video using built-in camera, etc.Reply

I'd love to see the GS3 in some of these charts to get a good comparison of how the GS line has improved over time. I have a GS3 and my 2 years is up this fall so the GS5 will be an option for me. The GS4 wasn't due to timing so having the 3, 4, and 5 in there would be more beneficial info to have.Reply

Must not have read...or comprehended the review? Metal is an incredible conductor of heat, a natural 'heatsink' for the 'guts'. See the scores in the M8 vs S5? Consistently higher benchmarks and faster, longer performance without throttling due to the ability of metals to dissipate that heat. Plastic is more insulator than anything. I own the Note 3, had the S3 and original Note as well. Metal, Apple's 'plastic' and all the Nokias I've seen have significantly better plastic build quality than my Sammys. To defend samsung and their use of extremely cheap 'housings' on the high end phones is silly. Kinda the joke of the entire industry. Such cool ideas, fast processing, great displays and digitized screens with styli... Yet they have FINALLY gotten around to improving TouchWiz...a bit more refined this time around, still kinda 'old' looking and heavy with crap you won't use...NOR have they increased or 'bettered' their manufacturing process when it comes to building the phone housing. I'm not saying it HAS to metal, though the iPhone is gorgeous, as are the latest HTCs and XPerias...but plastics can be molded, hardened, shined up and 'feel' solid if done right. Samsung's cheap rear plate is a joke. Nice to access a battery, but I've never owned a second one...my Note 3 will last two days. Nice to have the SD storage. And IMHO they actually did a pretty good job with the N3's 'textured' faux leather design on the black model. I'll hold judgement on this one til I see it...but @ 5.1" it's starting to creep into that Note/Phablet territory...one a bit more niche than the typical user. I love my Note3 but it's a two handed device for everything and anything I do with it. Even after owning one for two and a half years, I still hate using it as a phone. Too damn big. But anymore, talking on our phones is tertiary. MMS,SMS, Facebook and Twitter, emails and texts. So many more efficient ways to communicate. But when you've got to make a call, it's nice to have a comfortable phone. I love the iPhone for a lot of reasons, but a big one is the ease of one handed use. While the N3 has the 4" small screen option, the hardware is still in the same spot so it's kinda useless with the exception of phone dialing or single handed texting. Reply

"Pretty much all the flagships offer some set of tradeoffs that prevent any one from being the perfect device (iPhone's screen size...)"

Not really what I would choose to knock the iPhone - in my opinion the iPhone is about the right size and screen size is a knock against pretty much everyone else. That said, iPhone doesn't allow MicroSD expansion, doesn't feature different screen size options, has the closed Apple environment, charges outrageous prices for storage expansion - there are a lot of less subjective criticisms that can be made.Reply

No word in this review about the 16GB version only having 5GB of space for Apps? Come on, the press is the second to last bastion for consumer rights! Offering 16GB and advertising it as such when 70% of it is taken up by the OS, is as close to lying on the box as you can get. Also, SD cards are basically useless for apps at this point, so putting one on the phone, then having the press point it out is just a big middle finger in the face of the consumer.Reply

Well finally it is mentioned that amoled even with pentile is a better technology then IPS , LCD, etc. I personally hate pentiles but the true blacks that you get plus much better contrast, lower battery consumption and better colors make amoled the clear winner, now we just need someone else to start using them other then Samsung, I'd definintly get the g2 if it was amoled but I might be stuck with Samsung as I can't go back to an overbright backlit LCD phone.Reply

The device you refer to in your conclusion sounds a lot like the upcoming xperia Z2. I for one can't wait to see how it fares. Any plans on reviewing that device? I'm asking since I've noticed the Z1s pop up in this review. I know Sony's release schedule in the US can be a bit wonky. Reply

Why are things like removable battery, sd card, IR transmitter, HR monitor barely mentioned or completely ignored, while the fingerprint reader gets a detailed criticism? The fact is the S5 is a very well balanced phone.

How exactly do the GS5 materials 'prevent it' from being a perfect device? This stupid myth about 'metal > plastic' needs to die, and its one this site likes to keep repeating. The GS5 is much more durable and waterproof compared to the 5S or M8, yet its seen as a tradeoff ?!! I don't want a metal body, plastic is shown to be better built and more durable.Reply

The thing is that the colours can bd mostly tamed and amoled is the only one to be accurate with a very important color: black. Once you see how much true, absolute black enhances movies and reading, it is hard to go back to they greys of lcd.Reply

"Samsung got it almost perfect with the GS5. With a metal body, a rear facing camera with larger pixels (perhaps with some tweaks to camera output processing), a better NAND controller, and stereo front facing speakers, the GS5 would probably be perfect."

"Although Samsung was the first major OEM to be caught cheating in Android benchmarks,"

Wow.What a hypocrisy!!!!!May I ask you WHY Samsung was the first major OEM to be caught "cheating"??? When all the OEM did it? And WHO found it? And when found it????Yes, it was Anand who found that Samsung is "cheating". And it was just when Note 3 come. What a coincidence?? LOL!!! Not before that, not after that . Just to bash Samsung. And later to wash his hands he wrote- "But all of them are cheating". Then again- "But why Samsung was "cheating" when anyhow Note 3 beat all of them?"Well he may thing that his hand are clear now. But he hope that still some smell could stay around Samsung. Happy?Now again in this "review" very active with hidden bashing Samsung and promoting the mediocre HTC M8 and covering the HTC flop, with misty sentences.So: Is it Display Mate lying about the greatest Display Ever Yet on S5?Is it the battery life of S5 better than M8 or not?Is it the S5 camera better than M8 and iPhone5s , or not?Is it the FingerPrintScaner , worse than iPhone5 , or not?Is it TW lagging or not?and so on.Is it S5 the best device yet? Or it's HTC M8? Or iphone-Apple?(your mentors and sponsors may be?)Please give clear answers.Reply

I cant believe I am even responding to this but this stupid uninformed samsung fanboy crap cant go undressed.

The Note 3 was not the first device caught. The gs4 international version was. It was kind of a big deal since it was the only device every caught to actually overclocking the gpu for the apps in the white list.

And the rest of your post is just useless fanboy nonsense. The data is there, but of course you wouldnt care to look at it. Objectively doesnt matter when you got a love affair with a brand . Reply

I cant believe I am even responding to this but - WHY SHOULD ONLY SAMSUNG take the negatives of this iAnand campaign ?? Because this campaign WAS INVENTED FOR THAT REASON.Even now in this review Anand mention it to slyly bash Samsung again?When I read this review , I'm not sure if this is S5 review or HTC M8 ad. LOLHTC was doing it before, and M8 did it too now. Where is Anand's article about it???

P.S.When some "tech guru" start to speak about "premium aluminum" smartphone(like Anand did it here)- how could we trust him??? How?Reply

Yeah because in ever single review after the gs4 they have included a chart with all the oems are cheating and in which test. And of course it wasn't mentioned at all in reviews of said devices either! And of course there wasn't long talks about it on the podcast

You're a delusional fanboy that thinks everything revolves around bashing Samsung. Simple because you have a man crush on them. Reply

I'm not a fanboy to any brand.And you are desperate liar if you say that Samsung was not the only one, that was bashed because of Anand and Co . Besides it's still not clear if this was "cheating", and even HTC lately explained that. But Anand didn't complain. LOL He thinks that ALUMINUM is so great material(lol), and that's why HTC are free to go. And even advertise M8 in S5 article, making fool of himself. If Samsung didn't do it, Anand would NEVER "discover" this "cheating". Period.Tell me about the "Regional Lock" organized attack against Samsung?Tell me about "View Cover" attack:)What about those organized "rumors" about "premium S5" , just before S5 to come on the market?(insinuating that S5 "is not premium").LOL:)So? Who is pathetic here?Reply

I have not said nor has anybody else said that Samsung wad the only one.

Hell this site has a theme going up where they update the benchmark cheating chart. But yet you still push your BS.

And Samsung was the only OEM to actually overclock the gpu. But since it's Samsung you got the nerv to even suggest well is it really cheating....

They complained loud and clear about this. In public on the reviews. In public on the podcast. Even in public we want Sony to send us a phone so we can see if they are cheating and add them to the chart

And now they are advertising the m8 in the article. So I guess you weren't paying any attention ever when a review compared different SoCs bins. Like the Samsung Galaxy s4 with its 1.9ghz s600 in the nexus 7 2013 article. Funny how that isn't advertising. Or when comparing screens on the tablets in the market. But of course you're a blinded fanboy so yeah.

They "discovered" the cheating not because it was Samsung. Because somebody on twitter Tweeted at Brian Klug and they investigated it from there. They weren't even looking for it period. And what did they do right after testing it on the Samsung device. Look at all the other players in the market to see if they were doing it. But facts and reality don't matter a delusional fanboy like yourself.

I'm not fan boy to any brand!!!!!And you hippocrates, do not lie, that this all BS was not meant OLNY for bashing Samsung .Even here iAnand mention AGAIN Samsung slyly, but didn't mention it about HTC (they even did it again with M8 , and didn't give a sh.... about iAnand "discoveries", saying that it was NOT cheating )Reply

Good job on the display analysis this year guys. Last year theS4 review did not go into the dynamic brightness adjustment issue and I feel you have nailed this down this year.

Though it would have also been nice to see the maximum brightnes in boost mode not only for 100% white but for an APL of 80% which is the average APL of web browsing content. It will probably be in the region of 500cd/m² based on the curves I measured last year.http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2...

If you look at the curves I produced and typical brightness for content at different APL levels, it shows how brightness progresses.- On the S4 it decreased from 478cd/m² at 1% APL down to only 283cd/m² for a 100% white picture, so a 60% loss.- On the S5, displaymate noted 698cd/m² at 1% APL and you noted 440cd/m² at 100% white, which is also about 60%.-Based on the apparently same progression and prorating my results from last year, at 80% APL we should still have 475 cd/m2 for web browsing, which is very close to the HTC One (approx 500cd/m², through this also varies with APL). For video content and some web content we should actually see brightness well above 500cd/m².

You certainly did a much better job than Displaymate in terms of objectivity.Reply

S5 reminds me a lot of the S4 Active which I used last year. Sucks to see HTC and Samsung go bigger and heavier this year.

I have the Nexus 5 and I'll never pay more than $350 off contract for a phone ever again. 30 grams less than the N5. Speaker is fine for short YouTube vids. I use bluetooth speakers and headphones in all other situations. Camera is solid after 4.1.1. Lack of SD slot is a letdown but I pinned my favorite music. Feels amazing in hand. Stock Android. Can't recommend it enough. $300 less than S5 and M8 off contract. And AT&T saves me $15 a month for bringing my phone to their service. Reply

S5 bestDisplayS5 improved super amoledz2 ips on the color RGB lighting with the addition of red and green phosphorus in diodesAll new one ips on the white backlightM8 have the same quality as in the display М7Cool backlight Z2, expanding the color gamut and "improves the shades",actually distorts the color because all the images are designed forstandard sRGB and an extension will only be in the negative. Althoughthe display is still better than the HTC M8.Amoled gradually improved and now he has lost almost all the shortcomings, there was only slight, noticeable only during the rapid motion of the screen (in front of screen) "modulation" at low brightness at maximum (it is comfortable in all conditions) this "modulation" No, I do not know why samsung does so in LG G Flex is no such (there is also amoled)In OLED (Amoled) white whiter IPS, faster response in comparison to LCD(hundreds of times better than LCD), contrast and black level is perfect(hundreds of times better than LCD), colorsdo not mix with each other,, ideal viewing angles.Oversaturated color removed using a cinema modeblog.gsmarena.com/samsung-details-new-galaxy-s5-display-panel/phonearena.com/news/Samsung-details-its-new-Galaxy-S5-display-the-brightest-most-efficient-OLED-screen-to-date-can-hit-698-nits_id54767phonearena.com/news/Display-Mate-Samsung-Galaxy-S5-has-the-best-performing-smartphone-display-that-we-have-ever-tested_id54583i-cdn.phonearena.com/images/articles/116013-image/Samsung-Galaxy-S5-HTC-One-M8-Sony-Xperia-Z2-LG-G-Pro-2-0122.jpgi-cdn.phonearena.com/images/articles/116012-image/Samsung-Galaxy-S5-HTC-One-M8-Sony-Xperia-Z2-LG-G-Pro-2-012.jpgi-cdn.phonearena.com/images/articles/116009-image/Samsung-Galaxy-S5-HTC-One-M8-Sony-Xperia-Z2-LG-G-Pro-2-009.jpgixbt.com/mobile/images/samsung-galaxy-s5/vs-pict-angle-l.jpgixbt.com/mobile/images/samsung-galaxy-s5/vs-white-angle-l.jpghi-tech.imgsmail.ru/hitech_img/source/cf/dc/746f7c86490ffdb8e93c035d5e62.jpgCameraS5 1/2.6 isocell phase autofocus 6 lensesz2 1/2.3 bsi 5 lensesone 1/3 bsi 4 lensesAt S5 even crude firmware (new sensor) better color, detail and less noiseThe rest of at the final firmware is very bad, especially in HTCeprice.com.tw/mobile/talk/124/4899661/1/rv/sony-xperia-z2-review/eprice.com.tw/mobile/talk/124/4899662/1/rv/sony-xperia-z2-review/4pda.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=515584&view=findpost&p=30435226WaterproofS5 ip x6Z2 ip x7one ip x3BezelsS5 is more or less thin bezelsZ2 more or less thin bezelsone big bezelsPerformanceS5 2048 MB RAM (Dual-channel) LPDDR3Z2 3072 MB RAM (Dual-channel) LPDDR3M8 2048 MB RAM DDR2phonearena.com/news/HTC-admits-its-High-Performance-Mode-pumped-up-benchmark-scores-for-the-HTC-One-M8_id54509BodyMetal is bad for the connection know about it all in the industry, aluminum is not a premium material, it is used for beer cans. At s5 soft touch texture like nexus7 instead of glossy plastic s4Reply

"Preferred" for what? For helmets?? For car bumpers??? .......Aluminum is is the WORST material for smartphones. In many ways.And YES , same drink in plastic bottle cost more than , if it is in cans. Check it out.Plastic is MORE expensive than ALUMINUM. Check out this , tooReply

You just keep telling yourself that. The iPhone has documented connectivity problems. See eghttp://m.digitaltrends.com/mobile/iphone-5-problem... That list further notes that the aluminum chassis is prone to scratches (an apple VP says it's normal and to be expected... Not on my $800 device... Figure out how to prevent it). That list also notes the extreme battery drain problem I experienced on my iPhone 5, which died overnight the first night I owned it (failing to wake me up in the process). Owning an iPhone was a very underwhelming experience for me. After six months I dumped it for a note 2 and then a nexus 5 and have been much more satisfied. And my phone doesn't look like it's been to war like, for example, my stepfather's which has many dents and scratches. Reply

Very solid r review. Thanks for the useful balanced review. The information and your style as writer is refreshing as I am often times caught forced to ignore reviews due there extreme bias. I feel better equipped to make a purchase and that my expectations of what ever device I choose will be more realistic. Thank you for doing your job well. Reply

Not a single word about actually making phone calls? No call quality / HD Voice stuff? I was awestruck by how awesome my iPhone 5 handles regular non-HDVoice calls, and the GS3 was good, too, but my old HTC One was subpar.

Also, how come camera comparisons don't take WP's in to account? No Lumia 1020/1520/930?Reply

There should be more talk about the lack of a 64MB option. I have a 64MB HTC One (M7) and enjoy never having to worry about running out of storage for apps, etc. Losing half my storage is a big disincentive to "upgrading" to a new phone. Reply

I am not going to make the case that having more storage considering the outrageous prices of the these devices. But at a point it gets a ridiculous. People complain loud OMG no external storage. No buy. Then they make 32gb device with expandable storage. People still complain Reply

Uh, because SD cards are dog slow compared to storage on the motherboard. SD CARDS SUCK and that is why HTC includes larger storage options. Just another reason the M8 is the best Android phone money can buy.Reply

What I'm most impressed by, is how well the LG G2 is performing at these benchmarks against much newer phones. I have had my G2 for a while now, and it is an awesome phone.. so much so that these phones look more like side grades than upgrades even though, I mean it was released September 12, 2013 and now almost 6 months later, the epic increases of speed in mobile seems to be subsiding some.Reply

The galaxy ace has cyanogen mod 7.2 installed on it.The S3 has touchwiz based on android 4.3

In terms of hardware spec the S3 is many multiples more powerful than the ace.

However many basic functions are much snappier on the ace, in particurly using it as a phone, bringing up the call log, scrolling the call log, making calls, answering calls, opening contacts, all these functions much faster on the ace. The ace also wakes up immediatly whilst the S3 has wake lag, the ace has much longer lasting battery even tho it has a weaker battery. However the ace does suck when it comes to using it for the internet/gaming most 3rd party apps as thats where its hw spec hits it, but its limitations are mostly down to its lack of ram. IT seems to always have more spare cpu cycles than the S£ as the S3 is bogged down by touchwiz.

So why havent I got the S3 on AOSP. google edition etc? the problem is the contacts/dialer app on AOSP sucks really bad, its aweful. Especially with the default white background. Samsung have at least maintained a half decent UI design in their dialer/contacts the problem is its mega laggy. But sadly UI design wins over performance. CM7.2 has the best ever dialer/contacts I have seen on a android phone but new phones cannot use CM7.2.

I have recently decided to start using the ace as my main phone (its easier to use out and about also due to its smaller size) and primarily use the S3 as a portable computing device. That way I can stick AOSP on the S3 and not worry about the crappy contacts app.

Do samsung deliberatly make their interface laggy? not sure, its certianly possible tho as they want to give a people a reason to upgrade to the next phone every year.

Also notice how every new software update increases the fotn size as well, to give people a reason to want the higher DPI. The relative font size looks equal on my ace vs the S3 even tho the S3 has a way higher resolution.Reply

I would be an incredibly shortsighted business plan to purposely create a laggy UI and hope it makes people upgrade... It will make them upgrade... To a competitor's phone. If the lag was your problem with the device, why would you but another device that very well might be laggy as well? Reply

The reason why manufacturers drop those skins is not so they "look different" only but because they can somehow rationalize not updating the software on the device later and force you into an upgraded device sooner. http://qr.net/stx3Reply

No comments about radiated sensitivity in the two wifi bands, nor in Cellular, PCS, or AWS bands. This review is somewhat pointless.. If someone buys this device and it has weak RF performance, they're not going to be happy with any of the features (esp. download booster) if connectivity is horrible due to poor antenna design.Reply

He told you that it works great. What else you want? To tell you that iphone5s is the best device???(or M8?)He couldn't say it strait(cause he pretend not be biased) , but hinted it many times. And he even said here that the ALUMINUM is great and very important feature for him(as "tech guru" he should know that aluminum is the WORST material for smartphones, though).Besides he did "great job" already, to play-down all the great features that S5 has.Reply

Maybe it's just me, but I now think anand now very carefully selects test results that makes apple devices look better, while pretending to be unbiased.

Stock browser beats iPhone 5 with sunspider (slower chrome was used instead). AMOLED screen sucks at web browsing and excels at movie playing and there is no movie playing battery benchmark. Display brightness is shown with manual brightness (which is capped).

And again the "plastic is bad" conclusion - I absolutely HATE phone case and always carry tiny backup battery. Why he keep saying that mobile devices should be made in metal? Metal gets scratched and bent, is heavier and slippery so everyone puts case over it - then WHY? Reply

If you're in the market for an Android phone you don't give a crap about Apple. What you want is to be able to compare Android phones against one another. So Anand picks a neutral browser to allow a good comparison. Reply

PLEASE add to your phone reviews whether the GPS functions work when the phone is in airplane mode or out of cellular range. I use my HTC Amaze for camping and other off the grid trips and do so because the GPS works with my offline maps etc.Reply

I used to love Samsung phones, but not so much anymore. If I'm going to spend 600 bucks on a phone, can we please stop making it feel like a toy? I'm not saying anything about using metal; Nokia's Lumia devices are made of polycarbonate but they feel rock-solid and excellently constructed.

AMOLED? Meh. IPS is where it's at. AMOLED's oversaturated to the point of cartoonishness. With AMOLED, in six months of decently heavy use, tons of the blue subpixels burn out and the display gets weird unless you're very, very careful to make sure that all your subpixels wear evenly. White webpages drain the crap out of battery. I had a Galaxy Nexus for eighteen months (the one with the RGBG pentile matrix that's supposed to reduce the effects of subpixel burn out) and within half that time I had blue stripes where the status bar and nav bar were whenever I put it in landscape mode. IPS doesn't have this issue; my Nexus 4's screen looks exactly the way it did when it was new, eight months later.

The only new device I really care much about right now is the Xperia Z2. Sony phones have been awesome for a while now except for Sony's insistence on using crap screens, but the Z2's display is amazing. Not oversaturated, looks natural and fantastic, has great viewing angles... not to mention an sdcard slot and a gigantic battery.

Samsung doesn't sell a ton of phones because they're the best device, just like Apple doesn't. They both sell a ton of phones because they both spend a ridiculous amount of money on marketing.Reply

My review is simple. Get in line and get this phone: http://amzn.to/1ksys3o - Got a chance to test it and this is one awesome phone. Finally Samsung got something right with the S5. I've had HTC & Samsung phones prior to the Galaxy series came out. And nothing has come close to this phone. Great resolution, great camera, love it still has a sd slot to expand your storage capacity along with the high gb internal memory. Lots of ways to tweak to your liking.Reply

People who are been obsessed with stock experience pushed to their phones the minute Google announces a new update buy a Nexus phone. Everyone else buys the phone they feel best suits them. Most people teds to buy Galaxy S phones, simply because they are the best, and one of the very few with an OLED display. http://evo9.it/qr.net/aReply

I am (actually more than a little) disappointed that Samsung is trying to do the right thing on one hand with the introduction of Knox for securely running enterprise applications on these devices, yet on the other hand not taking suffient care to really enable them to be what they are:

Very small and portable yet incredibly powerful workstations, quite capable of replacing entry level PCs by just sticking them into (better placing them on a wireless) docking station, which has a set of full sized screens, keyboard and mouse connected to them so you can run either light office applications right off the phone or use Citrix (or any other terminal server protocol) for some heavier stuff, which still requires a beefy VDI to run.

To call them "phones" today is like calling a PC a "word processor": Sure that's how they started, but that's not what the have become.

I bought the Note 3 (like its predecessor, a Note 1) as a very personal workstation, also bought the docking station, which gave me HDMI video and audio out as well as 3 USB (2.0) ports, but I was extremely disappointed to find that the "handheld workstation" wouldn't properly initialize the Asix USB Ethernet adapter, which *every* Android I've ever tried works with out of the box.

And the monitor was little better: Even though the phone's screen is actually turned off with KitKat and orientation properly switches to landscape mode, all UI elements look groteskly swollen because they were sized to fit a 1080p resolution on a ~6" screen, but not the 32" LED TV I use on my desktop. Needless to say that word processing is no fun when letters are taller than your thumb.

Clearly the only use case Samsung seems to support via the HDMI port is watching movies: Something I don't need a workstation for.

After no essential Knox features or applications were forthcoming I went ahead and rooted my Note 3, essentially killing any chance of ever using Knox on that device now. With two "netcfg eth0 dhcp" commands in sequence I can now properly bring up Ethernet and thus connect to the securized office LAN and run Citrix, but with the built-in and fixed DPI settings all other desktop use is still painful to look at.

There are of course solutions to that problem: Any Parandroid ROM and derivative has wonderful multi-DPI support built in, but unfortunately since the MHL adapter in the Samsung devices doesn't have an open source driver, you immediately loose the HDMI connect, once you put one of these multi-DPI capable Androids on the workstation: Catch-22!

The only one who can fix this is Samsung and it doesn't look like they are using this opportunity to make their devices more appealing for enterprise use.

I have quite a number of Android devices and having a different flavour on each one of them would make them pretty unusable. So I put Omnirom on all my Galaxys (except the Note 3), my Nexus 4, 7, 10, Oppo Find 5, Asus TF101, Notion Ink Adam and even switched the return and menu keys around on all the Nexus devices to put them back where "God" (Samsung) intended them to be on my first Galaxy S, with home in the center.

And since the original launchers were always far too limited and boring I've been running SPB 3D shell on all of these devices for years, which gives me both speed and a nice look as well as a level of consistency across phone, portrait and landscape tablet sized Androids, not possible otherwise.

Custom Androids give me choice, configurability and privacy: Let the hardware vendors concentrate on creating the best workstation they can make and leave the OS alone!

I bought a post-PC darn it, like in "personal" not a blackmail subscription!Reply

Why are the tester do not test audio quality??The background is, that people between 15-30 years do consume 90% of music on their smartphone. So it would be a smart move to give the audio quality a higher priority in the test.Finally the S5 has in my view the best audio quality available on a smartphone these days.A really smart move from samsung....that was formerly one of the key the departements of apple....Sadly the competitors needed a few years to understand the importance...Reply

I wish phone reviewers would test audio quality. I really, really do. But more than that, I wish they would test the one thing that is absolutely most important to audio quality on headphones, the one thing that can ruin good sound quicker than anything if it's not within the correct ratio...

Output impedance.

Nobody does this except that Korean blog Golden Ears, and the English translations just don't keep up with the new devices coming out. I really, really wish someone, anyone, anandtech or otherwise, would break out the multimeter and test output impedance!Reply

The reason why manufacturers drop those skins is not so they "look different" only but because they can somehow rationalize not updating the software on the device later and force you into an upgraded device sooner.

Anyone buying a non-nexus phone is in this boat unless they want to do some work on their own to keep the devices up to date and that doesn't always quite work out right in terms of stability.Reply

Good thing that they have upgraded this nice phone. What to do with my current phone though... Wait a minute.. if I can sell my current phone I will be able to recoup some of the cost and just top up. I found Gadgets and Toy to be helpful. find it here http://www.gadgetsandtoy.com/Reply